Sport

London calling on Gale wishlist

ANDREW Gale says Yorkshire success in the Royal London one-day Cup will help him achieve a long-term career goal.

The third competition on the county calendar starts on Saturday when the Vikings cross the Pennines to take on Lancashire in a floodlit clash at Emirates Old Trafford (2pm).

The cup reverts to 50-over cricket after four years of 40 overs, mirroring what is played at international level.

There are two nine-team groups, consisting of eight matches. The top four in each group qualify for the quarter-finals ahead of semi-finals and the final at Lord’s on September 20.

“It’s one of those things in your career that you put on your bucket list as a cricketer. You want to play in a Lord’s final. It’s something that I would definitely like to tick off,” said captain Gale.

“People say ‘it’s gone back to 50 overs and there won’t be as much interest and because of the amount of cricket played so far, teams will be chopping and changing’. I can assure you, we want to win it. We’ll be going into that trophy to win it.”

Yorkshire’s last trophy came in 50-over cricket when they beat Somerset in the C&G Trophy final in 2002, and Gale added: “I was with the England under 19s at the time.

“There was me, Tim Bresnan and Nick Thornicroft who’d played a game at Taunton against India the day before. We drove straight to Lord’s to watch the final, and it was a fantastic day.”

Yorkshire round off their NatWest T20 Blast group campaign tomorrow knowing a win over Nottinghamshire at Headingley will secure a quarter-final berth.